


Dare

by SecondSilk



Series: Present, Past, Future [2]
Category: House M.D.
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-08-01
Updated: 2010-08-01
Packaged: 2017-10-10 21:32:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 392
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/104517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SecondSilk/pseuds/SecondSilk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Flashbacks during Babies and Bathwater.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dare

It was one of those drunken parties Greg liked because he could sprawl on the couch and watch everyone else with a level of superior amusement. He merely smirked when Mark started truth or dare. He had a reputation for tricky dares and probing questions, which kept him safe. They were after Sarah's cousin James, who was too young and far too out of place. But the kid knew where he was, and chose dare.

James was, interestingly, determined in the face of Jesse's drunken attempts to impress his girlfriend. So he simply climbed onto the couch beside Greg and braced his hand on the couch above the other man's shoulder. Greg looked up him, watching the dark eyes and floppy hair with the same detachment he reserved for the puzzle of medicine. James leant forward slowly, but not so hesitantly that Mark or Jesse could call him chicken. He paused to blink before he covered Greg's lips with his own. The kiss was brief, but warm, and Greg could taste the alcohol on James's breath.

Then it was over, Jesse cheered and Sarah blushed. Greg watched James as he pulled away, but did not meet his eyes.

Greg had no regrets, he never did. And he could not imagine putting a single foot differently on the journey that brought him from Mark and Jesse's flat the night he met James, to here, saying nothing as James, his sleeves rolled up, packed the pieces of his life one by one into a cardboard box and described their friendship as stupid and screwed up. But Greg wondered, as his mind went over the events of the last several weeks, what would have happened if he had kissed James back.

What would have happened if he had opened his mouth, just a little, invited James's tongue to touch his lips. If he had been able to taste James past the alcohol, to remember what kissing James Wilson felt like. And if he had raised a hand to brush the back of James's neck, as heedless of their audience as he was headless of anyone's censure, would they be standing here, now, with the too solid tension between them?

But James had come to know him well, these last several years. If he could do it all again, Greg would do it exactly the same.


End file.
